Electronic General Meeting System

Your single point of access to all your general meetings.

It is mandatory under Article 1527 of TCC for Borsa Istanbul listed companies to provide a system which enables their shareholders to attend the general meeting by electronic means. Electronic General Meeting System (e-GEM) that was launched on October 1st, 2012 is designed not only for listed companies but also for all the joint stock companies in Turkey (optional). On e-GEM issuers, shareholders, proxy holders and intermediary institutions perform all the transactions before, during and after the general meeting with their digital signatures.

e-GEM allows shareholders to do transactions without shareblockage, give vote instructions, appoint a representative, watch the meeting live, ask questions and express opinions, cast their votes and receive instant notifications relating to all these procedures from everywhere with an internet connection.

As is known, international investors, especially large US funds were complainant of the legal and operational barriers for cross-border proxy voting. Regarding the mentioned barriers, Turkey was in a far worse point than many competing countries considering shareblockage obligation, difficult and confusing PoA procedures especially for foreign investors, physical attendance obligation, lack of an effective system to get informed of general meeting dates and agenda and last but not least, receiving prompt and accurate feedback on voting carried out by proxies. But today, ahead of many European Union member countries, e-GEM provides full compliance with important international regulations and principles such as OECD Corporate Governance Principles, EU Shareholders Rights Dierctive 2007/36/EC, Market Standards for General Meetings and ICGN Principles.

Therefore e-GEM was viewed as a highly developed system by international media. In various reports and reviews on corporate governance and general meeting practices, launching e-GEM is considered as a big and daring step by many since there is no other example in the world where using such system is obligatory for all the Stock Exchange listed companies. It is widely believed that because of the mentioned developments above, transparency and investibility of Istanbul Stock Exchange listed companies has risen. It is praised that e-GEM was designed to provide precise and timely information to international investors.

e-GEM will add up to corporate governance effectiveness, international recognition and competitive capacity of issuers. Moreover due to increasing transparency and information exchange among shareholders and issuers, also complying with international rules; e-GEM will highly contribute to make Turkey more attractive for global investors as well as realising Istanbul International Finance Center Project.